$3M for Skip the Dishes 'bad policy': small business lobby group

When she first read the story about a government subsidy for $3 million, the head of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business in this province wondered, "Are we talking about Saskatchewan? Or another province?"

Marilyn Braun-Pollon says the deal is a "head scratcher, on so many levels."

• Sask. government approves $3M subsidy to Skip The Dishes

Particularly because the Saskatchewan Party government has always maintained it would not repeat the past practice of previous governments when it came to make direct investments in private companies.

"For the longest time this government has been proud of the fact that they were not picking winners and losers in the economy," Braun-Pollon said. "Small business owners, when we survey them, don't support that kind of approach."

"It's a bad policy that we just, as a province, can't afford."

Premier Brad Wall agrees the province cannot afford any similar deals in the future, but he denies this one breaks his longstanding policy of favouring any one company.

• No more Skip the Dishes-type deals, Sask. Premier says

Braun-Pollon disagrees.

"I think when you look at a no-strings attached subsidy of $3 million that says to me that it sounds like picking winners and losers," Braun-Pollon said.

"It just sends all the wrong messages."

Braun-Pollon says one problem with the policy is that it encourages other business owners to ask for similar treatment. "And then where do you stop, right?"

She says surveys of business owners who belong to her organization show that most of them think subsidies and grants are a poor way to help them become more competitive.

Instead, she says, they would prefer broad-based tax cuts and less government spending.

• Today's Political Panel on CBC Radio's Morning Edition also talked about this story. Watch it below.